There was a 36 per cent reduction in the number of admissions as a result of road traffic accidents to one Irish hospital in the year following the introduction of penalty points, a new study has shown.
The study at Cork University Hospital found this was reflected in a reduction in in-patient bed days from 3,366 to 1,772.
Penalty points were introduced on October 31st, 2002, and in the 12 months prior to and after their introduction, a total of 820 people were admitted to the hospital as a result of road traffic accidents.
The authors of the study are now looking at data for the second year of penalty points but according to Dr John Street, senior specialist registrar in orthopaedics at the hospital, the downward trend in admissions as a result of road traffic accidents seems to be reversing.
"We have noticed that the number of attendances seems to be on the way up again. I guess the honeymoon period is over," he said.
This would not be entirely unexpected given the increase this year ithe numbers killed in road traffic accidents.
As of yesterday, there had been 258 fatalities on our roads so far this year, 27 more than at the same time last year.
The study was compiled by Dr Street and colleagues at Cork University Hospital.
Dr Street said the study showed that not all specialities in the hospital saw their workload drop, however, in the 12 months following the introduction of penalty points. "The relative orthopaedic workload increased from 34 per cent to 41 per cent with a 10 per cent increase in relative bed occupancy.
"In fact orthopaedics saw a relative increase of 7 per cent of the total road traffic accident related workload of the hospital after introduction of penalty points legislation," he said.
This indicated that budgets for all departments couldn't be reduced "carte blanche" following the introduction of penalty points, he added.
Although the orthopaedic unit may be busier, the pattern of orthopaedic injury, which was treated in the 12 months after penalty points, was significantly altered with a more than 50 per cent reduction in high velocity injuries.
Specialities which saw their workload from road traffic accidents decrease in the 12 months after penalty points included neurosurgery and plastic surgery, Dr Street said.
"We believe these data reflect both the national and international experience of such measures (introduction of new road safety legislation)," he added.
The study is to be presented at the 29th Sir Peter Freyer Memorial Lecture and Surgical Symposium in Galway later this week.